Henri Rousseau Word Scramble

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Henri Rousseau was born in northwest France in the city of Laval. He liked to draw, and he enjoyed music. He played the clarinet. Once he wrote a waltz and named it for his wife. He served for a time in the French army, and when he was discharged he worked as a toll collector for the city of Paris. His friends called him Le Douanier which means custom official, but actually he just collected toll money. When he was 49 years old he retired from this job and devoted the rest of his life to painting. He was a primitive artist; self taught. He would go to the Louvre and copy the paintings. Even when he started making his own paintings he sometimes copied from other artists. He enjoyed going to the botanical garden in Paris and looking at the plants and the zoo animals. Then he would make a painting with plants in it, but instead of making the plants their actual size, he would make them as big as trees. This made the picture look like a fantasy world. Many people just laughed at his paintings because they looked so unreal. However, some well known artists such as Picasso saw the value in his work. Picasso even gave a banquet in his honor. As a rather lonely man, he died at the age of 66 from a leg infection. Only seven people attended his funeral. About a year after his death his paintings began to sell, but he didn't live to see the recognition he craved.

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